My 7 month-old son has sounded very congested since birth. His breathing often sounds very nasally and loud, almost like a snorting type sound. It is worse when he is laying in the horizontal position, and he often snores at night. At times, he also seems to have a rattling sound in his chest. He doesn't act like this bothers him at all, and he never has a runny nose or anything. The doctor has checked his lungs at all of his check-ups and assures us that they sound great and that the rattling is not coming from his chest. She believes the congestion is somehow caused by reflux, and she prescribed Zantac at his 4 month check-up. Other than lessening his amount/frequency of spit-up, we didn't notice a difference with the Zantac. We also noticed during this time that he would sometimes have milk trickling out of his nose when he nursed. Not at every feeding, but about 2-3 times a week. We brought this up at his 6-month check-up, and the doctor still believed it could be linked to reflux. She prescribed a stronger type of reflux medicine, which he has been taking for 3 weeks now. Again, we are seeing no improvement in the nasal issues. Any other suggestions of what could be going on?

The first thing i would suggest is taking him off the reflux medicine and putting him on a probiotic of some sort. It does not sound like he even has reflux for one(so why risk the side effects) but if he does the probiotic will help aid in digestion rather than just cover up a problem like the medication. The congestion could be from a variety of things such as enlarged adenoids, allergies, etc. Enlarged adenoids typically reduce on their own and the symptoms will stop allergies will usually come and go so i don't know that this is your problem. Your doctor can look at the adenoids with a telescope to see the size. I have an 8 month old son who is going through the same thing and we have tried the nebulizers, humidifier, etc. We have noticed recently that he is really tight around the neck and shoulders and my wife has been working on that as she is a chiropractor which may also be an option. It is more work on the muscles than anything else and much of it we can do at home. Hopefully the improvements continues. It sounds like you doc does not know what is going on and i would keep looking until i found one that had some answers and did not just take a stab in the dark with reflux. Good Luck

My son is 16 months old and has been suffering from major congestion since birth. The stuffiness did go away in the summer but then returned in september. it turns out he has an ear infection for a very long time now. Slowly disappearing and then quickly coming back. He also has fluid in his ears. My son never cried or fussed about it at all. So to us it was a shock that he had an ear infection at all. Turns out his adenoids are enlarged and will have to remove them along with his tonsels. Take your son to an ear nose and throat specialist. We tried several medications that seemed to take the edge off but not fully having it disappear. Sometimes children deal well with pain. g/d willing it is very minimal and will go away when the weather becomes warmer, depending on where you live. It started off with snoring type of congestion and grew to this all because he displayed no signs of discomfort. g/d willing you will find the answers and all will be well soon. Deffinately see a ENT speacialist.